“What right do I have to call myself Māori? I don’t look Māori, I wasn’t raised Māori. To the outside eye, I’m your regular, pale skinned kiwi”

Created and performed by actor and comedian Hayley Sproull, Vanilla Miraka is a fast paced one woman comedy that combines theatrical performance, stand-up comedy and music to tell the story of a wāhine grappling with her whakapapa, her identity and her place in multi-cultural Aotearoa.

This Wellington season is presented by Taki Rua Productions as part of its development programme.

"There was an old man who lived on the edge of the world and he had a horse called Sydney Bridge Upside Down. He was a scar-faced old man and his horse was a slow-moving bag of bones, and I start with this man and his horse because they were there for all the terrible happenings up the coast that summer, always somewhere around."

Set in Calliope Bay, the mythic place from our childhoods, where self-discovery plants its earliest and most potent seeds. Sydney Bridge Upside Down is an adolescent memory of when we begin to...
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20 years after it burst onto the stages of the world, writer John Broughton’s iconic piece of Kiwi theatre returns.
Michael James Manaia is a poignant story about a New Zealand man who, after returning from the Vietnam War, finds himself at odds with his culture, his history and his memories. Packed full of dynamic theatrical action and colourful characters, we follow his journey through childhood, family, love, grief, violence, conflict and passion.
After premiering at Wellington’s Downstage Theatre in 1991, this heart-wrenching One-man show went on to th...
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Celebrating our 16th year of touring total immersion Māori theatre to audiences throughout Aotearoa, Taki Rua Productions proudly presents the 2011 Te Reo Māori Season. Karapinepine draws on the life of a prophet from our past in order to look at the way we live today. It asks “Is there a prophet in each of us? What forces shape the path we follow in this life?”

From the Director, Ngapaki Emery

“Karapinepine is the action of gathering or drawing in close. The seeds for this work began with me drawing in on my curio...
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Where do we stand as young people in the community? Who do we follow now all the old people have left?

At the foot of the Urewera ranges lies Awhi Tapu - a desolate forestry ghost town; with the forestry industry closed down most of the inhabitants have left. Wendyl, Sonny, Casper and Girl Girl have only each other and their fertile imaginations to rely on.

This is a story of loss, belonging, but most of all, friendship; it heralds a new wave of writing around Maori issues and characters; direct, unsentimental and challenging.

Italy, 1944: a battle torn-theatre of the Second World War. The allied onslaught stalls at Monte Cassino and the 28th Māori Battalion find themselves centre stage. A young Māori soldier goes out to steal food; an Italian takes cover in a stable. Both find themselves trapped in a potentially deadly stand-off, but with Germans just outside, their survival depends on co-operation.

Combining live music with drama, comedy and performed in Māori, Italian and English, Strange Resting Places shines a light on the complex emotional bonds of New Zealand’s wartime his...
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